Ms. Kisner founded
the Kisner Law Firm, LLC, which she operated for 15 years before joining
Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl in April 2018. With nearly two decades
of legal experience, she represents property owners, business owners, and
individuals, litigating cases in federal and state courts. Ms. Kisner draws
on her personal experience and legal expertise to represent individuals and
businesses with a variety of landlord/tenant issues from lease negotiation to
disputes and litigation. She also represents thousands of Allegheny County
property owners in real estate assessment appeals.

Rachel Garland (she/her) is the co-managing attorney of the Housing Unit at Community Legal Services, where she where she co-leads a team of 40 lawyers, paralegals, social workers, and other staff members in litigation and advocacy to prevent evictions and homelessness. Under Ms. Garland’s leadership, CLS’s Housing Unit has made huge strides in strengthening legal protections for renters so they can assert their legal rights and remain safely in their homes. Ms. Garland and the unit have worked to design and implement Philadelphia’s Right to Counsel program to provide representation for tenants in their eviction proceedings, grow the Philadelphia Eviction Prevention Project, and envision, build and support the implementation of Philadelphia’s new Eviction Diversion Program. Ms. Garland began her career at CLS as an Equal Justice Works fellow in 2008 with a focus on the intersection of housing and domestic violence. In her role as a staff attorney in the unit, Ms. Garland represented subsidized housing tenants facing a wide variety of housing issues including eviction, repairs, termination of subsidy, illegal evictions, criminal barriers to housing, rent calculations and disability accommodations. Ms. Garland’s focus on subsidized housing tenants has allowed her to represent high volumes of public housing, Section 8 voucher, section 8 project based and Low-Income Housing Tax credit tenants.  She is well versed in the intricacies of subsidized housing law and the many barriers subsidized housing tenants face in maintaining their subsidies and stable housing.  Ms. Garland has worked closely with PHA’s Resident Advisory Board in advocating for implementation of best practices at PHA and represented the RAB in lease negotiations and in providing comments on PHA’s annual plans and changes to their policy documents. She also worked extensively on the intersection of housing and domestic and sexual violence, providing representation, community education and legal advocacy in this area. Initially, Ms. Garland worked on implementation of the Violence Against Women Act’s new provisions granting protections from eviction and denial of admission to subsidized housing for survivors of domestic violence and sexual Assault. Ms. Garland then expanded this work to collaborate with other advocates to achieve major victories for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault living in non-subsidized housing, including changing the laws in Philadelphia in 2011 to prohibit discrimination against survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in private housing and establishing a procedure for victims to terminate their leases early.  Ms. Garland worked to train advocates, social workers, landlords and judges on the new laws and how they played out in practice to ensure that tenants would not be denied housing due to their protected status, nor evicted due to their protected status.  Ms. Garland also worked closely with Regional Housing Legal and the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency to amend the policy documents for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program to extend these same protections state-wide. Ms. Garland has also worked extensively on the preservation of affordable housing, both by working directly with tenants facing displacement from their homes when the subsidy contract for their property ends.  In her direct representation Ms. Garland represented a case in federal court on behalf of tenants at a formerly subsidized property that resulted in a Third Circuit en banc precedential decision requiring that landlords of tenants with Enhanced Vouchers renew their tenants’ leases unless there was good cause to evict them.  Based on this experience and other experiences working with tenants facing displacement from their homes due to their private landlord’s decision to end the subsidy contract, Ms. Garland joined the Philadelphia Preservation of Affordable Housing Coalition to work on legislation that would preserve affordable housing as long-term neighborhood-based resources for tenants.  Ms. Garland along with the Coalition worked on legislation introduced in 2019 and reintroduced and passed in 2022 to support this effort.  Ms. Garland continues to focus her representation on tenants facing mass evictions when their landlords end subsidy contracts, illegally shut down entire buildings or allow their properties to fall into such disrepair as to significantly impact the lives of their tenants. Ms. Garland received the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network (PLAN) Excellence Award in 2019, the Rutgers Law School Mary K. Philbrook Public Interest Award in 2021and the Community Legal Services Equal Justice Award in 2023. Ms. Garland earned her J.D. from the Temple University Beasley School of Law in 2007. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2001, with BA in politics.

Mr. Rich is currently serving as a staff attorney in MidPenn Legal Services’ (MPLS) Harrisburg Office.  He joined MPLS in 2006 as a paralegal.  After he received his J.D. from Widener University School of Law – Harrisburg, he began as an attorney at MPLS in 2011.  He provides advocacy, consultation, supportive services, and representation to low-income residents (mostly in both Dauphin and Perry Counties) primarily in the area of landlord/tenant cases, both in private and subsidized housing matters.  He also works with low-income individuals who are experiencing problems with utility services.  He has served as an instructor for the civil update portion of the continuing legal education for Magisterial District Judges since 2017.  He is a member of the Dauphin County Bar Association’s Court Rules Committee and was recently appointed to the State’s Minor Court Rules Committee, which term is set to begin in February 2022.

Mr. Speidel is the Director of our Tenant Rights project. He represents tenants with a range of legal problems, with a focus on prevention of evictions. Before joining SeniorLAW, he was a staff attorney in the Elder Law Project of Vermont Legal Aid. His work involved representing low-income senior citizens in a broad range of civil legal issues, including evictions, public benefits, guardianship, and protection from abuse and exploitation. Mr. Speidel graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2006.

Ms. Gwaltney is Deputy Director of Compliance with the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (PCHR), the nation’s oldest municipal civil rights agency. In this position, she   manages the enforcement and administration of the Fair Practices Ordinance which protects the rights of over 17 categories of individuals prohibiting discrimination in housing/real property, employment, public accommodations and the delivery of city services. PCHR also enforces Philadelphia’s Fair Chance Hiring law (Ban the Box), the Wage Equity Law, and the new Wholesaler’s and Renter’s Access Laws. Previously, she worked as Assistant Chief Counsel and Education attorney with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC). As Assistant Chief Counsel, she approved complaints of discrimination and provided guidance and advice to the Philadelphia Regional Office staff in employment and housing matters. As Education attorney in the Executive Office of the PHRC, she developed and implemented a comprehensive plan for equity and diversity in a local Pennsylvania school district. No stranger to advocacy and protecting the rights of others, Ms. Gwaltney worked as trial attorney for the Defender Association of Philadelphia where she acquired extensive trial and courtroom experience. During her time there, she represented a multitude of clients and logged thousands of courtroom hours in Municipal Court and Common Pleas Court. While a Public Defender, she spend a number of years in the Juvenile Unit counseling and representing juveniles charged with criminal offenses from pre-trial through trial and disposition. She is a graduate of Hampton University in Virginia; Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, and is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania. Ms. Gwaltney ’s professional and volunteer experience includes membership in the Forum of Executive Women, Board Member of Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Board Member of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts and Executive Board Member of Temple University Law Alumni Association. Recent presentations include: Panelist on “Lawyers Don’t Discriminate Right?-8.4 (g) and Anti- Discrimination in the Legal Profession” at the 2021 Virtual Bench Bar Conference; co-presenter for #StopAsianHate presentation for an area high school; The Forum of Executive Women’s virtual presentation on systemic racism entitled “Let’s Talk about Being Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable.”

Mr. Edger is a Senior Deputy Attorney General in Charge of the Harrisburg Region of the Bureau of Consumer Protection with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Prior to joining the Attorney General in 2021, Mr. Edger was a Regional Managing Attorney at MidPenn Legal Services, a non-profit legal aid firm for over seven years, representing clients and overseeing all services in Adams, Cumberland, Franklin and Fulton counties. Mr. Edger is also an Adjunct Professor at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, teaching in the areas of family law, property, employment law, and trial skills. He was recently awarded the Michael K. Smith Excellence in Service Award by the Pennsylvania Bar Association Young Lawyers Division in 2023, and the Pennsylvania Bar Associations Pro Bono Award in 2022. He was named a Rising Star by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers from 2019 to 2021 in the field of “Legal Aid/Pro Bono,” a feat typically unheard of in the history of Pennsylvania Super Lawyer for that field. Mr. Edger recently completed his three-year term on the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Board of Governors, including as Chair of the Young Lawyers Division for the 2021-2022 year, He is an active member of the Cumberland County Bar Associations, where he serves as the 2nd Vice-President, and will become President of the Cumberland County Bar Association in January 2025. Additionally, Mr. Edger was appointed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as a Hearing Committee Member to the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board. Mr. Edger is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Safe Harbour, a local homeless shelter located in Carlisle, and President of the Widener University Commonwealth Law School Alumni Board. Mr. Edger graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Elizabethtown College and earned his Juris Doctor from the Widener University School of Law. He lives in Carlisle with his wife Katelynn and two sons, Connor and Aiden.

Ria Pereira serves as a Supervising Attorney at PULP, where she provides legal representation, training, consultation, and support services in utility and energy matters affecting low-income residents and community organizations in Pennsylvania. Prior to joining PULP, Ria worked for 4 years as an attorney for a domestic violence agency representing survivors of domestic violence on a range of legal issues. Ria received her B.S. and B.A. in Psychology and Political Science from the University of Florida, and h er J.D. from the Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson School of Law.